Building Capacity, Slowly

Submitted by Doug Lederman on March 11, 2009 - 3:00am

On a day that President Obama reinforced his call to increase the number of Americans in college, the federal government released data showing that higher education's capacity is growing, albeit too slowly to meet the goal set by the president and others.

The data also continue to show that a disproportionate share of the growth can be attributed to for-profit colleges, which are expanding at a rapid clip.

In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce[1] Tuesday, Obama reiterated his goal of having every American attend at least one year of college and having the country reclaim its mantle as the nation with the highest proportion of college graduates. To reach that goal, which has also been a focus of groups like the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the college going rate would have to increase by significantly more than half over the next 15 years.

Data released by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics Tuesday show higher education capacity growing at a significantly slower rate than that. The annual report,[2] "Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2007; Graduation Rates, 2001 & 2004 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2007," offers a first glimpse at data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which is the government's primary method for tracking a variety of student and institutional data.

According to the report, colleges and universities that qualify to award federal financial aid enrolled nearly 18.7 million students in fall 2007, up about 2.6 percent from 2006 and about 5.42 percent since 2004’s total of 17.7 million.

Enrollment at publicly supported institutions grew by 2.4 percent from 2006 to 2007, enrollment at private nonprofit colleges increased by 1.5 percent, and enrollment at private for-profit colleges rose by 7.22 percent. For-profit institutions have maintained that pace over a three year period, and since 2004, their share of all enrollments grew to 7.9 percent of the total college population, up from 6.7 percent.

Enrollments grew slightly faster at four-year than at two-year colleges, and they shrank at institutions that offer less than two-year degrees, as shown in the table below:

Enrollment at Colleges That Award Federal Financial Aid, 2004-7

Institution Type

2007

2006

2004

1-year % change

3-Year % change

Total

18,670,775

18,205,474

17,710,798

2.56%

5.42%

--Public

13,595,540

13,281,664

13,081,358

2.36%

3.93%

--Private

3,595,207

3,543,455

3,440,559

1.46%

4.49%

--For-profit

1,480,028

1,380,355

1,188,881

7.22%

24.49%

4-year colleges

11,630,585

11,240,834

10,726,683

3.47%

8.43%

--Undergraduate

8,986,267

8,666,183

8,235,301

3.69%

9.12%

----Public

5,813,773

5,622,555

5,407,236

3.40%

7.52%

----Private

2,436,958

2,409,256

2,347,309

1.15%

3.82%

----For-profit

735,536

634,372

480,756

15.95%

53.00%

--Graduate

2,293,554

2,231,205

2,156,853

2.79%

6.34%

----Public

1,210,278

1,192,757

1,193,584

1.47%

1.40%

----Private

895,197

863,300

825,093

3.69%

8.50%

----For-profit

188,079

175,148

138,176

7.38%

36.12%

--First professional

350,764

343,446

334,529

2.13%

4.85%

2-year colleges

6,740,309

6,650,734

6,656,105

1.35%

1.27%

--Public

6,374,245

6,276,185

6,282,576

1.56%

1.46%

--Private

44,843

55,507

56,705

-19.21%

-20.92%

--For-profit

321,221

319,042

316,824

0.68%

1.39%

Less than 2 year

299,881

313,906

328,010

-4.47%

-8.58%

--Public

54,598

50,431

62,206

8.26%

-12.23%

--Private

12,349

13,769

14,005

-10.31%

-11.82%

--For-profit

232,934

249,706

251,799

-6.72%

-7.49%

The proportion of students enrolled part time continued to grow, and grew fastest at four-year institutions, though part-time students remained more than twice as likely to be enrolled at two-year colleges as at four-year universities, as seen below:

Enrollment by Institution Type, Status, and Student Age

2007

2006

2004

1-Year % Change

3-Year % Change

4-year undergraduates

--Full time

7,148,604

6,928,029

6,601,064

3.18%

4.95%

--Part time

1,837,663

1,738,154

1,634,237

5.72%

6.36%

4-year graduate

--Full time

1,112,532

1,077,313

1,024,505

3.27%

5.15%

--Part time

1,181,022

1,153,892

1,132,348

2.35%

1.90%

4-year first professional

--Full time

316,549

309,158

301,543

2.39%

2.53%

--Part time

34,215

34,288

32,986

-0.21%

3.95%

2-year

--Full time

2,789,393

2,766,389

2,773,407

0.83%

-0.25%

--Part time

3,950,916

3,884,243

3,882,405

1.72%

0.05%

Less than 2 year

--Full time

239,241

255,526

266,633

-6.37%

-4.17%

--Part time

60,640

58,380

61,377

3.87%

-4.88%

New data published for the first time in this year’s report – which therefore cannot be compared to previous years – show that students aged 24 or under make up 69 percent of students at public four-year colleges, 61 percent of students at four-year private institutions, 59 percent of students at two-year public colleges, and 27 percent of enrollees at four-year for-profit institutions. At community colleges, however, the under-24 crowd is split evenly between full-time and part-time students, while at the other institutions, the vast majority of traditional age students attend full time.

The Education Department report also contains statistics on student graduation rates, which remain largely unchanged from the previous recent years. As seen in the table below, full-time, first-time students who entered higher education in 2001 were likeliest to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years at private nonprofit colleges, followed by four-year public colleges and for-profit institutions.

Asian American students are likeliest to earn degrees within six years, followed by white students and nonresident aliens.